You might have already bought the three-piece shaving set, the Brut aftershave or, more boldly still, the Lynx deodorant ready to wrap and give on Sunday but have you ever considered whether you've had any real effect on the grooming habits of the men in your life? Whether it's your father, the father of your children or perhaps even their godfather, has the recipient of your Father's Day accolade lifted his game after something you said or did, even if it was just flossing after brushing?

The men's skincare market is flourishing: five years after it was launched, ClarinsMen has 15 products, including a serum released this year that is said to slow whisker regrowth. The Australian brand Eyre BioBotanics is selling niftily packaged cleansers, scrubs, creams, balms and even hand cream to white-collar professionals. Biotherm's men's range is so successful the company is altering its department store beauty counters.
Could a good woman be behind any of this? Can you claim a little of the responsibility? My friend Shelley reveals that after only a couple of years' nagging her husband has not only stopped biting and picking at his nails, he has infrequent (and manly, she is keen to stress) manicures. Another friend says she's still ''working on'' her husband's ''foot issues''. And I know that another friend's husband now has a four-step skincare routine down pat (including morning eye gel) after seeing his girlfriend in action before the mirror. I know because he told me. There's nothing even metrosexual about men's skincare in 2007, for a certain age group at least.
Have you convinced your dad to try a No. 3 instead of a No. 1 at the barbers? Or shown a special someone what they might like to be doing to improve the appearance of their pores? How much influence do we have on the men in our lives when it comes to grooming issues, anyway?

The plight of the 26-year-old woman dying of skin cancer has not only reopened debate about solarium use but made many of us reevaluate the importance and value of any type of tan. Has Clare Oliver's story - which has led to calls for a national code for the solarium industry - put you off getting a tan this year, whether it be from the sun or a sun bed? Both can lead to skin cancer. Is it time to change the long-entrenched Aussie culture of sun worshipping? Could the tan be on the way out?

Fashion specialists say that it is only in Australia that the bronzed look is valued - in Europe models nurture their pale skin, as is evident in any fashion magazine. Of course this isn't the case in ''real life'' - workers on their lunch breaks are known to strip to their underwear in London parks on sunny days in an effort to turn a raw pink - but there are signs this is changing.

You see some beautiful peaches and cream complexions on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney. Women are finally accepting that the sun is ageing, particularly the harsh Australian sun. You tan: you wrinkle earlier. Sometimes vanity can be more motivating than a health threat (think of the women who don't want to give up smoking because they'll put on weight).

Are you one of the determinedly pale? How do you manage it on a day to day basis? (I feel a bit of a dill when I open my parasol but not enough to keep it closed). Do you think Australians will ever follow European trends and ditch the tan?

There seems to be a bit of bah humbug creeping into some of the postings to this blog recently and the limited edition Christmas packs aren't even on the beauty counters. You're going grey because you can't be bothered colouring, calling people who have Botox not very nice names and moaning about having to cleanse or pay for good products. There is a joy - a joie de vivre - to beauty and people who read a beauty blog, bless you all, might want to embrace this a little. Enough, for today at least, of the negativity. Come on, it is fun really. Let's talk about what we love about beauty. It's great to look good, isn't it? It makes you feel good!

Beauty is frivolous compared with, say, Kevin Rudd's night out in new York four years before a federal election, but that's what's good about it. Sometimes the right choice in nail colour can lift a bland mood on an even blander Thursday. Knowing you've got your hair just right means you're free from having to fuss about it and you can get on with your day, maybe do the odd head flick a la Pantene for appreciative onlookers. Or contemplate an Aviance night. We do love our beauty products - Australians spent more than $2.6 billion on them last year and mid-year figures show that's rising. It follows that we do love doing things for beauty's sake.

One of my favourite beauty things is using makeup wipes in the very early morning, not because they remove makeup, obviously, but because they move me into wakeup at a time when I should still be sleeping and then I can see to get the kettle on and start to face the day.

I love - when I have the time and the inclination - to try different Nars eye shadow combinations; the effect is always different and always good. I love applying lots of creamy rich moisturiser to my throat and chest: they are always so receptive and look visibly more, well, beautiful. We're all happy.

Over to you now. What do you love about beauty? What's fun or enjoyable or just plain lovely for you?

I've always thought of Avon with nostalgia rather than any burning interest but Reese Witherspoon may have changed that. As I polish off my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (not too bad for American chocolates) and consider whether Walk the Line is worth another viewing (for him not her), I realise that the accompanying press release and glossy photograph of the movie star becoming Avon's first ''global ambassador'' has also made something of an impression. If the golden girl of Hollywood has signed up as spokeswoman then Avon must be worth a second look. Reese certainly looks mighty southern fine in that picture (no evidence of Peanut Butter Cup ingestion in that complexion) and she's got enough money and clout to be choosy about who she represents. She must like Avon. If she likes it, I like it. I might just invite the Avon lady in next time...

Celebrity endorsement is a powerful tool but it only works on some people. Like, er, me, I've realised. Polls suggest I'm in the minority. Most Australian women - in fact women in most countries except India and South Africa - say that celebrities in beauty ads do not influence their beauty choices, according to a survey by Clinique. A survey by an Australian newspaper last year found that celebrity endorsement was in fact the least influencing factor when choosing what brand of cosmetic to buy. So Catherine Zeta-Jones (Elizabeth Arden), Gwyneth Paltrow (Estee Lauder) and Sarah Jessica Parker (Garnier Nutriesse) can smoulder, pout and cajole all they like, we won't be buying it.

Only I don't buy that. The cosmetic companies wouldn't spend millions of dollars (Clive Owen was paid $A6.2 million by Lancome earlier this year) on signing up famous faces if they didn't shift products. Come on - 'fess up. If a cynical journalist runs out and buys some outrageously priced SKII facial essence because our Cate said it was what she used (and yes I did know on every level she was getting paid a lot of money to say it) then someone else must have been similarly influenced.

Who did it for you? Zeta Jones looking all grown-up glamorous in Arden? Have you bought L'Oreal Elvive shampoo after Jennifer Aniston flicked her gorgeous mane? Do the escapist Lauder ads - all fantasy settings and Paltrow/Hurley and anonymous handsome beaus - make you think the perfume must be beautiful? And if Reese Witherspoon is ''very excited to be partnering with Avon'' shouldn't we all be?

Have you ever had one of those heat of the moments (or spas) when you've got just a little bit carried away with the ol' beauty product gander? You know - a flash of gift with purchase madness in the department store (''must have, must have'') or hypnotic obedience to a beautician's recommendations (''yes, yes, I must have, must have'')? My worst case left my husband, best friend and I stranded without food or water in Athens airport for 18 hours. My timid contributions that at least our skin wouldn't get dehydrated were met with diplomatic silence.

It had been a trial of a holiday on a package deal so cheap that the hotel's shower was outdoors beside the pool where all the British lager louts and their birds had taken root. The hotel was in possibly the only ugly bit of Crete - we never got to find out because the buses weren't running. Still, the beach, while ordinary, was close by and we did save lots of money because there was not a night club, restaurant or shop in which to spend it. So at the airport I thought it only right to make the most of the duty free. Husband and friend stood either side as I bought the entire Clarins range, and then some, using every last bit of local currency I could weadle and summon (we would never, ever, be back, after all, and the conversion rate was so kind it was the beauty bargain of the year!). Of course then the plane was delayed several hours and then cancelled and because of the nasty package deal we had no alternate flight or hotel room to go to. Nor a seat to sit on between us. Or credit card. Or, er, money. Just, ah, lots of products.

Surely you've never been so rash? Beauty's an elegant, composed sort of realm: no room for such silliness, surely!

There comes a point in every woman's life when she must relax into the natural ageing process and, well, allow herself to look old. As a couple of respondents to the ''Lunchtime fix'' blog pointed out, Botox cannot work forever - then what? (A mini facelift, according to plastic surgeons, then the full facelift, needing to be renewed at least every 15 years.) But hair can be coloured right into old age. Greys can be completely covered. When - if ever - is the right time to stop?

Nothing can be more ageing for women than prematurely grey hair, which is probably why you rarely see a well known face crowned with silver. In fact it can be wonderfully shocking to see a young woman with defiant grey streaks - wonderful because you think ''good on you'' but shocking because it makes her look so much older than she really is. It's draining. Grey hair always starts at the hairline where it is most noticeable and seems to occur only in sections, never wholly which can be chic.

Modern colouring techniques mean hair can have its ''natural'' colour - or a more flattering lighter version - even when the original has long faded. Most women are colouring their hair by their 40s because they ''have to''. But there has got to be a point in your life when you say ''enough's, enough, I will become grey/white/silver haired''. And it can be done gracefully: most hairdressers advise blending the ''silvers'' (as they charitably call them) with the coloured hair, gradually changing the ratio over several months till it's all silver. Then that silver can be coloured a more flattering shade of silver (no one gets blue rinses any more, have you noticed?). Nothing too sudden, and it allows time for any changes of colour to clothing or makeup that need to be made for most flattering effect. Completely white hair, particularly, can look magnificent.

At what point or age can you see yourself ''going grey''? Or have you already reached that point? How was it and, perhaps most tellingly, what was the reaction from loved ones and work mates?

There's been a surge in so-called lunchtime procedures in the past year, dermatologists and cosmetic surgery practices report, with demand for Botox described by one plastic surgeon as ''quite incredible''.

''People are looking for minimal downtime,'' says a spokesman for a busy practice in Sydney. ''They want to leave work for an hour, come in and have their skin looked after in a way that can put off photo-ageing, then be back at their desks.'' Botox tops the list, but injectable fillers for lip enhancement and to plump nasolabial folds are increasingly popular. Laser treatments to address skin problems such as pigmentation, spider veins and acne are also on the rise.

These non-surgical procedures do have minimal ''downtime'' but undertaking facial injections in your lunch hour? (Who has an hour's break any more, anyway, and are injectors always on time?) Are you one of the thousands of women who have exchanged a sandwich for a spot of Botox? Is it really as ''non-invasive'' as they say? Can you really face work and observant colleagues straight afterwards? Or maybe there are giveaways (spots of blood or stunned lethargy, perhaps), regardless of makeup application. Are ''lunchtime procedures'' feasible or should they be left for after work when you can slip home?

Is a little natural body odour ever OK? They seem to think so in London where most men relinquish any form of anti-perspirant in winter. This quaint local custom is paticularly noticeable on the Tube and is an entrenched grievance of female commuters who, regardless of flying phermones, find it as alluring as a man ignoring a pregnant woman in need of a seat.

In winter there's certainly not as much flesh exposed - no chests and biceps except on the coldest, latest of nights in the CBD, of course. But we all still sweat. And old sweat smells. Old sweat in second-day clothes really smells.

There's a whole anti-deodorant movement out there, just as there is an anti-hair-removal crowd. I can picture you all now. But body odour has more impact on the innocent public than furry legs. Yet some people obviously think that's not their problem. Or that normal body smells are nice and should be shared. Or they perspire only in heatwaves. Or something. And you? Are you a summer-only deo type-person? Does others' habits - or lack of - make an impact? But let's be decorous.

Mineral makeup will replace conventional foundation within the next five to 10 years if you believe all the PR speak that's getting around: and believe me, sigh, there's been a lot of it getting around. Minerals are being touted as the Next Big Thing, with plastic surgeons, dermatologists and celebrities lining up to endorse its benefits. And you know it must be a little bit big if a large international company like L'Oreal has released a version. But I can't help but think mineral makeup is a fad or fashion, like mousse foundations were in the Eighties (remember those? everything was mousse there for a while).

Mineral makeup - for those who haven't received countless emails and phone calls and brochures and samples - comprises only crushed minerals, like zinc oxide, titanium dioxide and iron oxides. Previously associated with health food types, it has been around for years (Jane Iredale released its mineral range in 1994) - it seems the PR wheels have only just begun spinning. Mineral makeup is said to not only give a radiant finish but enhance the health of the skin. It is anti-inflammatory, provides complete coverage and broad-spectrum sun protection, is water resistant and is safe to use on acne, rosacea and post-operatively after laser and microdermabrasion.

Has anyone tried it? I admit I've been so underwhelmed by the avalanche of endorsements and offers to ''train'' me in its use that I've grown a little weary of the idea. Can any (non-PR/non-celebrity) user reveal what it is really like? Does anyone else like the sound of it enough to give it a go? Or what's your preferred type of foundation? I've just rediscovered tinted moisturisers but that's a blog for another day...

Natasha Hughes has been a beauty junkie since the day Santa brought some Avon 'It's a Small World After All' Indian squaw perfume (which she still has). A journalist in London and Beirut before joining The Age and rejoining Australia in 2002, Natasha cannot but succumb to the possibilities a new mascara offers and thinks people who sunbathe are idiots.